The Art of lossless image compression, 8th release

Here are the results of 10 (ten) tests performed to compare
lossless compression of True Color (24-bit) images by PKZIP 2.04g, BOA 0.58b,
by some archivers with _special_ algorithms for 24-bit images: Bmp2Eri 4.02,
Arhangel 1.29e, UFA32 0.04b1, RKIVE 1.92b1, UHarc 0.2, ESP 1.92, RAR 2.03,
(sorry, HAP, SZIP, ARJ and all other archivers were not tested)
and results on same images of the famous PNG algorithm and format
created by Display 1.89a, CompuShow 2000! 2.04a, Image Alchemy 1.10.
See Archive Comparison Test by Jeff Gilchrist for more details:
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/jeffg/act.html

If anybody wants to start or continue such tests,
or can suggest some other sets of images, or other compression programs,
(not sources or algorithm descriptions ; programs for DOS or Windows only)
or knows we have missed something important,
(some new fantastic technology, an algorithm or even a program capable
of lossless compression of up to 1000:1 and lossy compression of
up to 10000:1 , we hear about it from time to time since our XTs)
please let us know immediately: ratush@srsc-gw.sscc.ru Thank you!

[[1]] Ratio results only

(without details: please read also
[[2]] Time results
[[3]] Details
[[4]] Important notes,including "What's new" and "How to download"
[[5]] PLEASE read THIS before replying to this article)

[[3]] Details

1,2,3,4,9 image sets were taken from ftp://ipl.rpi.edu/pub/image/ and /image2/
converted from Sun Raster format to Windows Bitmap,
(this conversion changes image headers only, 32 bytes
are replaced by 54 bytes, but image data is not modified)
and some of them were slightly renamed.
This site ipl.rpi.edu is described in comp.copression FAQ by Jean-loup Gailly,
in 29 lines of "Subject: [55] Where can I find Lenna and other images?"
Five images in the 5th set are from the famous Waterloo Color Set,
(compressed with Eri32 to 2,949,728 bytes , it can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/1995/ )
6,7,8 image sets are from ftp://download.intel.com/pressroom/images/
10th set was taken from ftp://ftp.kodak.com/www/images/dental/
and converted from TIFF format to Windows Bitmap.

[[4]] How to download archivers ; What's new ; Other important notes

Bmp2Eri 4.02 : http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/1995/bm2eri42.zip (122K)
Arhangel 1.29e: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/6606/arh129e.zip (27K)
Rkive 1.92b1 : http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/9463/rkv192b1.zip (129K)
Ufa32 0.04b1 : ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win95/compress/ufa004b1.zip (64K)
Pkzip 2.04g : ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/pkz204g.exe (197K)
Rar 2.03 : ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/rar203.exe (266K)
BOA 0.58b : ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/boa058.zip (74K)
UHarc 0.2 : ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/uharc02.zip (99K)
Esp 1.92 : ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/esp_v192.exe (68K)
New versions of archivers were tested: Bmp2Eri 4.02, Arhangel 1.29e.
Site download1.intel.com is now named download.intel.com,
and ftpsearch.ntnu.no now can't find any .TIF there.
The excellent BMF image compressor
GIF=>BMF, BMP=>BMF, TGA<=>BMF convertor, v.0.2 (C) by D.Shkarin, 1998
was not tested again, because it can't losslessly uncompress any
TGA image created by Display 1.89a, CompuShow 2000! 2.04a, Image Alchemy 1.10
("display -i --same -btga *.bmp" and "use_rle=0" in config.dis ;
"Targa uncmp" ; "alchemy -a *.bmp" )
It can extract to .TGA only, and these 24-bit .TGA images are not the same,
and you'll see nothing like "CRC fails"... As it is written in the manual,
> 5. It is experimental work, so it has LIMITATIONS.
> .TGA file format implementation does not supports right-to-left pixel order;
If anybody knows how to create .TGA images that can be losslessly extracted
by BMF 0.2 - please e-mail us immediately!
Some WARNINGS again: ESP 1.92 (release) has some bugs and was unable to
correctly uncompress some test images: they are (re)named in our tests as
AYMAR,GELSNGER,NACHTSHM,OTELLINI,VADASZ,YU1,DP081897,L217C-34,PS091597.
ESP doesn't even report something like "CRC fails"...As if everything is OK.
New Rkive 1.92b1 was unable to losslessly uncompress most images
from 6th, 7th and 8th tests, for example
AYMAR,BARRETT,CARTER,CRAWFORD,DAVIES,DUNLAP,DYESS,GELSNGER,GEYER,GILL...
It reports
"ERROR: File fails CRC check!.
Archive failed integrity check."
New Arhangel 1.29e was unable to compress some images:
RSMITH,YU1,CBARRETT,CHRISTEN,MMX4,ARCADE,IC010698,
but all other 215 bitmaps were extracted without any errors.
(although the program types
> ARchive HANdler by GEorge Lyapko v1.29d Shareware (c) 1997-1998
the archive is arh129e.zip, and the manual in it describes 1.29e, not 1.29d)

[[5]] PLEASE read THIS before replying to this article!

(1) Millions of thanks for your suggestions and attension!
Since the first release of this test we have received hundreds
positive replies by E-mail.
While the only three negative responses were posted to newsgroops!
(If you don't remember, they were:
from Harald Feldmann, author of HAP, to comp.compression
from Andrey I. Savov, a compression theorist, to comp.compression
from Horst Hackenbruch, a BBS sysop, to comp.compression.research
You can still find some of them, at www.dejanews.com for example.)

That's why, if you want to tell us something like this:
> P.s. I filter anything coming from hotmail as unwanted spam.
> the original poster doesn't really know what he's doing anyway.
> direct know what is happend... - an total unusefull nonsens not more or less.
> you are unable to correct many reported simpel errors at this ARI "program"
> over a long time. As excample "FCBS".

please don't post such "news" to a newsgroop, send them to us by E-mail.

If you hate hotmail, or don't like hotmail users,
or simply don't like what doesn't bring you (or your groop)
money or pleasure (now or later), most probably without even
noticing that as usual (nO! of course that's nOt about you),
please don't give such thoughts a tongue. Try to process them inside.

(2) The second reason why we ask you not to post negative responses
to newsgroop(s) is that we shall not answer ANY replies
by other way than E-mail.
Unfortunately we don't have much time to read and/or reply articles:
some of us don't speak english, many others are free away from any
networking stuff, even now, when we receive so many e-mails every day.
So, whatever you say about our tests in a newsgroop, we shall nOt answer
there, only by E-mail.

(3) Please don't feel angry, ignored or offended if you won't receive
any reply from us to your E-mail. We are really sorry, but we don't
have enough time to carefully read and answer all incoming E-mails.
Currently only two men can reply you (never more than three),
but only one, Alexander, usually does.